More Panning For Gold AND Pack #33 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

This is gonna be a REALLY quick post… Not too much exciting going on in pack #33 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press and not too many scans. Imagination is required…
#71 Mark Grace Chicago Cubs (More Gracey)
#95 Brian Hunter Detroit Tigers (More of the other Brian Hunter)
#134 Scott Rolen Philadelphia Phillies (More of the 1996 Rookie of the Year)
#149 Greg Maddux Common Checklist Atlanta Braves
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card +9
#80 Gary Sheffield MEN OF SUMMER Florida Marlins (Shef is golden-I do realize this scan isn't gold, but the card that I pulled is gold...)
#40 Eric Young Colorado Rockies (Eric Young’s Dad, the original EY)
#107 Bobby Bonilla Florida Marlins
I wasn’t lying, that was the quickest rip yet. There are only 4 packs (total) left of this break. Bring on the end! Since this went SO quickly, here is an update on my progress in my quest for GOLD! Thanks to everyone in the blog-o-sphere I am well over halfway done with the 2009 Tampa Bay Rays team set in GOLD. Between the 3 series there are 44 cards. (By the by I am seriously wondering if anyone is reading... If you are, the first person to send me an email with baseball as the subject wins a REALLY awesome prize!) I now have 28 of them making the team set 64% complete. I still need 16 more Topps Gold cards. If you have any of these, I need them, so get in touch. These are the 16 cards that I still need: 16 Evan Longoria, 35 David Price, 98 Akinori Iwamura, 134 Evan Longoria, 160 Evan Longoria, 174 James Shields, 177 Eric Hinske, 246 Upton, Crawford and Longoria, 321 Kazmir/Price, 567 Willy Aybar, 580 Scott Kazmir, 640 BJ Upton, UH179 Carl Crawford, UH262 Jeff Niemann, UH298 Jason Bartlett and UH318 Carl Crawford.
There will be more ripping this evening, keep on checking back cuz Shannon Stewart STILL says so! Go Rays, troll out.

We Have Reached the Thirtieth Pack of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

I am on a roll and nothing is gonna stop me! Not even homework, which I should totally be doing right now… Here we go with Pack #30 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press:
#80 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins (Shef led the NL with a .465 OBP in ’96. He also had 42 homers, drove in 120 and scored 118 times. He walked 142 times while only striking out 66 times. How seldom he struck out was always impressive for a slugger. Over his career Shef struck out 1171 times against 1475 walks and 509 homers. His career .393 OBP is 11th among active players and 84th All Time)
#69 Wade Boggs New York Yankees
#135 Shannon Stewart Toronto Blue Jays (I googled Shannon Stewart and this is the first thing that came up, I didn’t look any further)
#10 Hideo Nomo Los Angeles Dodgers (The Tornado struck out 230 or more batters in each of his first three seasons)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card -8
#50 Steve Finley San Diego Padres (Steve Finley was a left handed, slap hitting, lead-off guy. In 1992 he hit .292 with 5 homers, 55 RBI and 44 steals. In the first 7 years of his career he never hit more than 11 homers and then 1996 rolled around and blammo! He hit 30 homers and drove in 95. That made me scratch my head a little. His brother in law Brady Anderson had a similar resurgence in Baltimore)
#148 Roger Clemens Common Checklist Toronto Blue Jays
#93 John Jaha Milwaukee Brewers (Jaha spent 8 years in the minors before getting his shot in Milwaukee. He got a full season in 1992, but was a platoon player from 1993-1995. In 1996 he got another shot at playing full time and he hit .300 with 34 homers and 118 RBI. He also struck out 118 times. He wouldn’t play another full season until ’99 with the A’s and he once again drove in 111, but that was it. He played pro-ball for nearly 20 years, but only managed 3 full seasons in the big leagues. His 162 game average is 28 homers. He reached that twice)
Another one down. Six more packs of X Press to go. Is anyone still reading these? I hope so! I am pretty sure the entire blog-alaxy has entered Play at the Plate's Ground Hog Day Contest, but if you haven't, you can enter right HERE! Go Rays! Troll out.

Still Tearing up Wrappers... Pack #23 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

We are all the way up to pack #23 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press… I am on a roll folks! It is a brisk 29 degrees out here in the parking lot at work, but I just exited the rest room which has one of those forced air hand dryer/warmer thingies so I am ready! Here we go:
#56 Ken Caminiti San Diego Padres (Talk about a career year… 1996 brought Caminiti these numbers-.326, 40 homers and 130 RBI. He won a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, was an All Star and won the NL MVP Award. Never again did he come close to those stats, but 2 writers chose him on their HOF ballots in 2007-I suppose he does beat David Segui-in addition, I will say this card showing him swinging from the left and right side is pretty sweet!)
#74 Mike Mussina Baltimore Orioles (I hadn’t seen a Moose card in years and he appears in consecutive packs… I scanned the back of this one to show how poorly a great pitcher could pitch in 1996. 19 wins with a .275 batting average against and a 4.81 ERA? That WAS the mid-90s)
#80 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins (The Fish were Sheff’s 3rd team, he is up to 8 now… His 1996 numbers were just as grand as everyone else-.314/42/120)
#28 Dante Bichette Colorado Rockies (Dante only had 31 bombs, but he drove in 141, which still wasn’t enough to lead the NL-oh, sorry about the sloppy scans...)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card Bernard Gilkey New York Mets
#77 Travis Fryman Detroit Tigers (Travis drove in 100 runs in ’96 and didn’t crack the top-20)
#97 Joey Hamilton San Diego Padres
#123 Vladimir Guerrero Montreal Expos (He’s a Ranger now, he was an Expo then)
That was quick! Now I just to post 13 more of these and I am done with X Press! On that note, I might be done for the night... Troll out!